Last season Yan Valery was a vital member of Ralph Hasenhuttl's side in the second half of the season, yet now he cannot get any game time even when we have a crisis in his natural position.

Yan Valery broke through into the Saints first team last season and looked a class act, whether employed as a full back in a back four or as a wing back he looked the part and added pace going forward chipping in 2 goals in 20 appearances plus 3 as sub.

His breakthrough and form meant that Ralph Hasenhuttl was quite content to let Cedric go out on loan to Italy and rely on the youngster.

Initially this season it looked like Cedric might be off again even on loan or permanently with Valery again starting ahead of the Portugese defender who remained an unused sub in our opening three fixtures.

In those games Valery was not at his best, but in fairness he was no worse than some of his team mates and there weren't many Saints fans who were critical of him or who predicted that he would struggle to get a game.

In the third game of the season at Brighton he came off shortly before the hour mark for Moussa Djenepo and since then although he has been on the bench for every game, he has failed to get on the pitch for even one minute.

Indeed a few days after Brighton he was on the bench at Fulham in the League cup, that seemed normal though, after all he was an established first team regular, so it was assumed that he was having a rest.

Suddenly though Cedric was preferred, but more than that everyone else was also preferred with Kevin Danso, Jannik Vestergaard, Cedric and Yoshida not to mention Djenepo all being selected or used as a sub ahead of Valery even when it seemed that the young Frenchman was a natural replacement.

In fairness Cedric keeping him out at right back you could see, but at times it seems that Ralph Hasenhuttl has preferred to completely reshuffle his team rather than play Valery.

This came to a head at Spurs on Saturday, when the team came out Cedric was in it and we appeared to be about to play a back four with Cedric at right back, Bednarek and Yoshida in the middle and Bertrand at right back.

With Cedric injured in the warm up the natural thing to do would be to slot Valery in for a straight swap with little change needed, but Ralph opted to completely change the formation and bring in Vestergaard to play in a back three.

That took pace out of the equation at the back and we paid the price for that.

As mentioned in the 6 games in both League & Cup he has been an unused sub there have been reasons in virtually all of those games why he should perhaps have come on being the natural player, but the manager has still used others out of position rather than play Valery.

So what is the issue that the manager has with Jan Valery, certainly nothing has been said so far, the player himself has appeared to be nothing other than a model professional, he has said nothing publicly and just seems to get on, sit on the bench and not get a game.

He has now not played any football in six weeks and that is very strange.

If the manager has a problem with him and is not going to play him under any circumstances then why put him on the bench in the first place, it is only wasting a space, at Spurs because of the injury to Cedric we only had 6 subs instead of 7, aside from Keeper Harry Lewis the two unused subs were Valery & Kevin Danso a player who also seems to be out of favour and yet to play in his natural position and who should really have started if the manager wanted to opt for a back three as he did.

The Saints supporters are baffled, although they are solidly behind Ralph Hasenhuttl, they struggle to see what the problem in and therefore whispers are starting of trouble in the camp fuelled by Ralph's comments about Cedric pulling out of the game so late.

It will be interesting to see the Saints line up against Chelsea on Sunday, who will be in or out and will Ralph replace those out with the natural replacements or will it be a case of square pegs in round holes again.

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We Saints fans are used to these baffling decisions just look at the Martin Caceres situation, I think the only way to find out what's going on is ask these questions at the forum and keep asking until the club know we fans are concerned

Nick, I think fans would have been better served if you had asked " What's the issue with our Manager ".

In recent weeks the manager's team selection has gone from unfathomable to totally bizarre. Add in the fact that his use of substitues has followed the same path and I'm beginning to wonder if all is well with him and his relationship with the players.

You state that the supporters are solidly behind the manager. I'm not so sure this is the case given fan's comments on your site after the Spurs game. Much more inexplicable decision making by the manager and I suspect that he will find that not being Mark Hughes will be of little comfort.Particularly given that we've only won two out of our last twelve Premiership fixtures which by any measure is relegation form once again.

Agree with SaintMark1976. I think Ralph is skating on thin ice. It’s all very well proving to be something of a tactical genius when results are going well, but when they’re not you look like you don’t know what you’re doing! Valery was one of the few bright sparks last season. Add to this the fact that Ralph has come out and said this morning that he doesn’t know why Cedric didn’t play and we find ourselves in a bizarre situation. It suggests senior players aren’t happy with the manager, which needs to be resolved. Maybe a little team bonding time away is required. I’m getting fed up with hearing about discontent and fallings out at the club.

I like many am concerned at some of RH's recent decisions/selection. I don't want to doubt him at this stage, but can't help thinking Danny Rohl left and now all doesn't appear as it was in the camp or with certain selections..

It certainly feels slightly odd at the moment. Before Valery there was the Bertrand situation. The stats that many of us kept quoting last season about Ralph's points ration being so good have levelled off - only 13 pts from last 14 league games is certainly on the cusp of being relegation form. That said I think 'Ralph Out' talk is silly. I think it is disappointment after over-optimism. The squad wasn't strengthened much in the summer and we would still appear to be waiting for the effect of all those bad purchases to get through the system. Ralph is in a slump after an excellent start - hopefully he will find a settled team/system and the square pegs will go where they belong...

I wouldn't say that there is "an issue " with Valery (Nick). YES - he played well in those games LAST season, but young players often have difficulty in maintaining consistancy. It's up to him to get himself back in the right "mindset" and force his way back into the starting side. I'm not overly concerned about him. . To be fair I think Cedric is playing as well as he has done in a long while and he deserves his place, but it remains to be seen if he is well enough to play at the weekend otherwise Valery may comeback in "by default".

Danso comes back from suspension and goes straight in the side as a Right Back (after having two games at Left Back despite the player brought in as a Centre Back). Cedric moves to the Left. Bertrand on bench and no Valery. We've also seen JWP moved to Right Wing Back and Djenpo play as a Left Wing Back (which almost cost us) in some games.

So think SaintMark is correct when he asks whats the issue with our manager. Valery just seems to be part of the fallout